Bad Mommy, Bad!

Sooo, when I picked up the mail today, Mister Man was invited to a birthday party. Really, this isn't anything unusual or shocking. We get invited to birthday parties just as often as any other family.

As I went to write down the party on our calendar, I flipped over to August and wrote the time and place on the 22nd.

That's when I realized that umm I'm doing it again. Little Miss turns four on August 1. This is the first time that I've thought about her party. Once again, she's given short shrift, and this year she'll know it.

It's challenging to have a late summer birthday, especially at her age. While she'll be in the same preschool next year as she was this year (unlike last year!), she will have few, if any, of the same students in her class. She's doing gymnastics, but it's a drop in program so the same students aren't there day after day. We don't do daycare in the summer because my husband is off all summer. And given our schedules, while we play with some of the older kids in our neighborhood, we aren't super good friends with the few children Little Miss's age.

*sigh*

She knows she deserves a birthday party, and she goes to plenty -- in fact, we missed one last weekend when we were in St. Louis and she has one on the 18th. I hate to invite people we may not be seeing in the future, as feels like we're inviting them to get presents, but that's the life of a late summer birthday, right?

So now I have to start calling venues to see who is available on August 1. Or August 29. Those are the only Saturdays in August that we're free already. Somehow, I have a feeling that we're going to need to host a birthday during the week, which will lead to the comments (from the children, but I wonder where they got them) about why on earth we would ever have a party during the WEEK of all times.

Aaaaand, this is going to be a small party. We'll invite our friends from playgroup and from daycare, and maybe a couple from the neighborhood.

What do you do for those late summer birthdays? At least with Mister Man, I can get the class list the first week of school and send out invites knowing he'll be playing with those kids all year long. She's definitely tougher.

So let's see, in the next week, I need to find a venue, settle on a date, determine the guest list and get those invitations out. After I make them. Oops.

At least I have time to figure out how to do a dairy free cake that all the kids can eat, get the decorations, and figure out the dreaded goody bags. A little time.

Sorry, Little Miss. I promise it isn't that I don't love you as much as Mister Man. Somehow, your birthday just sneaks up on us every year. As you get older and have a core group of best friends, I promise we'll do your birthday up right with good fun and good friends. In the meantime, I'll just live with the Mommy Guilt.

And seriously, the girl is turning four in less than a month. How has this happened? Tell me I'm not the only one who forgets to plan birthday parties.